Over the past several years there has been increasing concern over the safety of our food supply. Contamination of food can come from a variety of sources and the type of contamination possible is often dependent on the food involved.
Most animal derived food products, such as raw meat, are exposed to the possibility of contamination during processing. Such contamination comes from, for example, contact with faecal matter at the slaughter house, from handlers of the food products at any stage of the processing of the food products or from toxins, both naturally occurring and man-made, present in the environment where the food was grown or processed. In most cases, contamination is minor and, if the food is prepared properly, is not a serious threat to the consumer. However, while the contamination of food is generally low, i.e. few bacteria per gram of the food, if the food is not stored under satisfactory conditions or stored for long periods of time, contaminants, such as bacteria, grow to be become a serious threat to the eventual consumer of the products. Even if the food products reach the market in an acceptable condition, subsequent treatment by the consumer may lead to the development of serious contamination of the food.
A number of incidents and factors have lead to the growing concern of the food supply. These include:
raw chicken and egg products have been found to be contaminated with Salmonella and inadequate cooking of such products has led to serious illness or death of persons who have consumed the contaminated products; PA1 mild products which have been inadequately pasteurized have been found to be contaminated with Listeria which has lead to serious illness or death of consumers of the products; PA1 a highly toxic strain of E. coli has lead to the death of several people who consumed prepared foods which had been inadequately cooked; PA1 a number of toxins are known, such as ciguatoxins, which contaminated fish. These toxins are not killed by cooking and so their presence in fish is a threat to any consumer of the product; PA1 shell fish, such as oysters, concentrate any contaminants present in the water in which they grow and, since they are frequently eaten raw, pose a threat to the health of consumers; and PA1 fish is increasingly eaten raw which adds to the possibility of increased outbreak of illness with water borne contaminants.
The only means the consumer has of determining if the food they purchase is contaminated is by visual inspection and by smell. These are usually inadequate to detect contamination.
There is a need for a reliable way to detect if a food product purchased by a consumer is fit for consumption. Any solution to this problem should be relatively inexpensive and able to detect a number of agents capable of causing illness. It should also be simple to "read" so that a consumer, who does not have access to sophisticated testing equipment or specialized knowledge, can readily determine if the products they have purchased are free from contamination.